Kangaroo Carrier
|upkeep = |prereq = None |production_struc = Armor Command Truck |primary_weapon = None |secondary_weapon = 1x .30 cal MG |garrison = 15 |health = |armor = Medium |speed = 5.85 m/s |num_products = |produces = |num_abilities = |abilities = |num_upgrades = |upgrades = }} The Kangaroo Carrier is a new vehicle introduced in the Tales of Valor expansion pack. The Kangaroo Carrier is an Armoured Personnel Carrier and is capable of carrying up to 15 soldiers in 4 different Squads, making it the highest capacity Infantry transportation in the game. Since it only has a machine gun on the front, the squads inhabiting it have to act as its base of firepower. But since only 6 soldiers are able to fire out of the top of the Kangaroo Carrier, it doesn't allow for the full firepower of all 15 Soldiers in the Kangaroo Carrier. Its armor is the toughest of the infantry carriers in the game, able to resist all infantry small arms and a few small armoured vehicles. Tips A good way of using the massive garrisson space is to fill the Kangaroo with for an example with 2 PIAT armed Sappers and 1 Infantry Section armed with rifle grenandes. Or if picking Commandos, load with the PIAT Commandos first then Commandos is next. History In July 1944, Harry Crerar's First Canadian Army was concerned by manpower shortages and Lieutenant-General Guy Simonds, commander of the II Canadian Corps, devised Kangaroos as a way of reducing infantry losses. The first Kangaroos were converted from 102 M7 Priest self-propelled guns of three field artillery regiments of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division who were involved in the initial assault on 6 June 1944. These were no longer needed, as these regiments were re-equipped with towed 25 pounder guns in late July. At a field workshop (codenamed Kangaroo, hence the name) they were stripped of their 105mm guns, the front aperture welded over, then sent into service carrying twelve troops. They were first used on 8 August 1944 during Operation Totalize south of Caen. The Priests were subsequently returned to US custody and other vehicles used. The majority of vehicles converted were Canadian Ram tanks or other Priests (which were sometimes referred to as "unfrocked" or "defrocked" Priests). The name Kangaroo was applied to any similar conversion. In the fall of 1944 they were used in Canadian attacks on the various Channel ports, operated by the 1st Canadian Armoured Personnel Carrier Squadron and the 49th Armoured Personnel Carrier Regiment under the 79th British Armoured Division (whose specialized vehicles were called "Hobart's Funnies"). Kangaroos were then used throughout the remainder of the campaign in northwest Europe. Significance During the Second World War, most mechanized infantry were carried in light armoured vehicles such as the Sd.Kfz. 251 or M3 Half-track. These vehicles had much better tactical mobility than a truck, but far less armour or mobility than a tank. This presented a tactical problem: if the carriers were needed so that infantry could accompany tanks, they needed to be just as mobile and just as well protected, particularly since the Canadian and British formations had difficulty in replacing losses. After the Mark IX of the First World War, the Kangaroo was one of the first attempts to solve this problem and, though they were expedient conversions, they largely solved it. The Kangaroo can be seen as a Second World War forerunner of the modern armoured personnel carriers, as well as infantry fighting vehicles, which have the added bonus of carrying decent support weaponry such as an autocannon, and hence can fight alongside dismounted infantry. Ironically, both the Israeli and the Russians are once again beginning to look to converted tank chassis as a basis for an APC that has protection against basic anti-tank weapons such as RPGs. Category:British Units